Raising the Tide
by BasiliskPrince
Summary: AU.A Braig's a brother fic. Braig is a layabout pirate but doesn't do much in terms of Xehanort's project. He's sailing and he comes across a discovery. Something he figures he can make good on and win favor with!
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One: Finding Treasure

The salt lingered thickly in the air as each wave lapped back in forth in lull. It was the time of the year that he kept to his ship, his fingers touching the heavy wood and the pegs on the wheel with a lover's touch. Today was to become a conquest in this world, and he knew all too well that a pirate's best celebratory drink was bit of rum and maybe a wench or two. It was as his ship "The Oblivion" set sail through the seas that he caught sight of a child floating aimlessly through the sea in a wicker basket. The eyes were bright blue, like sapphires against a night sky, and the hair stood up at a horizontal angle, threatening to touch the clouds save three tiny strands. Fingering his scar, he made his move and cast a net over the babe that lay waving its' little fists in the air and kicking frantically.

"Well, look what we caught here, Braig, looks like I got the wrong kind of treasure." He smirked as his gold eyes lit a fire. It was just another addition to the group that worked under Xehanort in Radiant Gardens. It was by mere luck he chose to slack off, not that it was ever real luck to begin with, and sail that he caught sight of the little brat in the basket. Needless to say, he'd raise him up good and he'd make an apprentice to Xehanort and his cause in no time. After all, that was what had happened with Ienzo and Even and look how useful Ienzo had become. Smirking with a knowing desire, he held the wiggling wicker basket in his hands and stared down at the chubby cheeked babe. It was the look of a scheming mastermind that covered over every detail of his aged face. The gray and black strands falling freely as chubby fists reached to grasp and pull, which looked to be a rather painful experience on the whole.

"Guess I can't just call you Squirt though I think it would fit," he smirked, his golden eyes glittering with a musing notion. "So what to call you…then…it has to be better than Ienzo or Even, something awesome…like Braig, but I have that name already," he paused for a moment, a gloved and fisted hand allowing his chin to rest on it.

"Gotta be original, can't have a Sue or John bein' my ward, I'm too awesome for those names and now because of me, so are you," he nodded with a pompous air as he strutted about his ship with a wicker basket in his clutches.

"Francis? How about…Gun?"He smirked, his chest outstretched and it seemed that all he was rewarded with was a harsh tug at his strands when his head became too close to the little pudgy fingertips.

"Alright, Alright! Sheesh I get it! No Gyun, but you don't have to laugh, it does hurt y'know," he paused for a moment thinking back to stereotypes and all things related to piracy. He couldn't rightly call the kid Rum: that would just beg question whether he was overly consuming said product…but there was a more obscure alcohol…one most didn't think Braig would rightly know about. It was a much sweeter product, but it was a good start on his naming process.

"How about the name Myde, little guy?"

For his question, he got the reward he was looking for: a clapping of chubby fists and a squeal of laughter. He couldn't really tell if it was just because a bird had flown above them, or he genuinely liked the name but it suited Braig not to think too much into it. Thoughts like that were better left to the Scientists that wanted to spend each day melting corners of their brains with research, no practical stuff like shooting people in the face! No, the scientists chose to invest themselves in the boring stuff, the stuff that would just leave him snoring on a desk and itching to pull a trigger. No, he would do something better. He'd introduce Myde into the organization and outshine every member until he was the one with all the glory…just riding on Myde's social ladder as the man who discovered the boy genius and usual member. Yes, it was fool proof!


	2. Chapter 2: Little Minnow, Big Splash

Chapter Two: Little Minnow, Big Splash

The truth was raising a baby was a lot harder than any of those parenting books ever truly let on. Each page was a boring trial to go through and then he would find himself with the dilemma not only being that he could not concentrate but he had failed to solve the first problem and merely escalated his own torture. True, it was often said that raising a child wasn't easy but couldn't children come with warning labels like "Do not pick up if you are not parenting material". Who'd have thought it would be actual work to raise the baby he'd found floating through the water's edge in a wicker basket, wrapped only in a blue blanket, and kicking and fussing his way into making every part of Radiant Gardens knowing of his presence. Myde was only a little minnow back then, though, and not really much of a problem really. He was fussy when he didn't have a nap, he cried if he saw sudden movement but he couldn't get into too much just by crawling about. The little imp was his secret and he couldn't possibly let the secret slip when he could barely toddle back and forth on his chubby little feet. No, back then Myde was simpler, even if he got fussy at any given turn. His cries were something to be weary of and his desperate cries of attention were always something to be fed into, less the waterworks would never end. Braig recalled an instance aboard the Oblivion, where the boy had been within his carved out cradle made of oak wood and a certain gunner's impatient skill. Each etch had been uttered with a slanderous breath, but he had erected the cradle all the same and it was yet another accomplishment that he boasted strongly of, even going so far as to proclaim the babe to one day be in his debt for such expert skill. Regardless though, it was that night when Myde had caught a case of the chills and sobbed relentlessly, that Braig learned infants could be demanding and were not to be left waiting. It was true to form that he avoided Myde becoming as fussy as he had been prior, for that night he had had to lift the whelp into his arms in a cradled fashion and rock the wretch back and forth murmuring old shanties before the little whelp went to sleep, and even then with a small hand clutching at his garb, he was forced to submit to carrying the boy to bed with him and allowing the sleeping cherub to nestle into his chest and succumb to sleep. The rising and falling of the small chest had been a relief to the old man after having to comfort the whelp for three hours. Needless to say, he had fallen asleep as soon as the small mullet-clad head had nuzzled deeper into his ebony cloth. They had slept peacefully for hours that night.

It was months without a word from the babe though, he would begin to grab at anything in sight but no words seemed to fall from those chubby lips. During times when Braig would feed him, he would work hard to get the boy to identify the mashed foods which was rather revolting to see adorned on someone's cuffed sleeve or down the front of a coat, he'd come to find. Applesauce was become something of a devil's food with the amount of it that ended anywhere but in Myde's mouth. Small fists had slammed at the bowl and splashed him with it, grabbed handfuls of food and sent it flying, and even tried to drum away with a spoon on the small table top.

No, Myde was a small terror and he was unfortunately, Braig's terror but he had to be worth it in the end. Each day that was what he used to get by another game of pull-the-gray hairs, or try to nom everything in sight. It was becoming frustrating that the boy had no desire to speak, but his crawling would always lead to shenanigans. The boy was rather fond of splashing liquid about and bath time was a nightmare. Rubber ducks seemed to even gain wings and take flight though sometimes only to cause impact with Braig's nose, and through each bath time experience Braig was becoming highly suspicious that bathing a baby was really just bathing himself twice over because he was always soaked from head to foot in bubble bath and water. Every gurgle and bubbly squeal was Myde finding new fascination in popping floating bubbles with his chubby index or pulling in and out the drain just to see what might occur. It was with heavy heart he would return to bed and melt to his mattress when sleep claimed the boy finally.

Surely, he had thought it couldn't have gotten any worse! No, it had hit its' peak and it would all be downhill from there…but that's when he got his wish. One morning when he was playing the usual game of trying to get most of the cut up pieces of egg in Myde's mouth, the boy chose to make a large exclamation of "Bubble" while sitting near the sink where a few dishes lay in soapy waters. It was a great delight at first and Braig had forgotten entirely that he had scrambled egg on the fork as he simply tossed it on the plate and picked the boy up to dance about with him.

"You spoke! Finally, you spoke. I'd hope your first word would be something more amazing like my name but, you spoke! You spoke!" And that had been the beginning of his first mistake, while it was wise to compliment the child's achievement, he really should have taken a more passive view of the event because his excitement had been contagious and the boy was a chattering fool with that one word over and over like a beaten and cracked record.

"Bubble! BUBBLE! Bubble! Ba~bubull~" All the same it was starting to numb and torture his mind as the boy went through the morning, afternoon, evening and the next three days just chattering the word over and over in succession. It was with great relief when the boy seemed to find another word to become fascinated with though the next one had been "boat". Every so often, the boy would learn a word, and it wasn't long before he'd begun to learn to string words together and even to stand on his own two feet and walk about. It was a great achievement but somehow Braig still thought it lacked any real progress towards his ultimate goal of knocking Even off his pedestal.

The worst part about the boy's slow transition into toddlerhood had not been the words that had been uttered over and over again, nor even the boy's constant desire to move of his own free will less he get fussy about it. No, the worst part was the amount of trouble a little boy on his own two feet could get into at Myde's age and no book had prepared him for any of the trouble the little boy would case. Chasing around a naked child around a ship deck was one such example, or the child's fascination with every bobble that he could now reach including some of the pegs on the steering wheel which were to become a hard and cold 'no no' aboard the Oblivion. The first time the little imp grabbed for the wheel, several barrels and personal items had been rolling around about the deck. It was with a very heavy temper that Braig had placed the toddling terror in a corner with a harsh no every time the boy had attempted an escape. It wasn't long before the corner had been a notoriously hated area, and Braig had thought it a great device for giving him some piece of mind. By the time Myde had learned the word 'no', it was being used in great supply.

"Myde, come here so I can put yer sock on, ye scamp!"

"No! No, no, no!"The boy took great relish in bouncing around with the word on his tongue and suddenly Braig longed for the days when Myde could only crawl. It was a headache and a half with the little rat and there were days where Braig wanted nothing more than to hoist the boy off on Even and give that scientist all the credit, if only to avoid another two year old tantrum. Still, each time he was ready to push the whelp on someone else, the little fingers would curl around his outfit or a little attempt to say his name would pull at his heart strings. He was halfway to freedom but his feet would just lead him back to his own on his ship.

Most of the members of Xemnas's apprentices were residing in the castle but Braig was never one to be confined by walls. He had his home on the rolling waves and he had made it a point to make sure that Myde liked the water too. The first time that he had introduced the imp to the ocean waters, the boy had little floatation devices wrapped about the boy. One of the little floatation devices were light blue in color with little ducklings dotted on it for a child's fancy and settled on his arms, allowing the boy to keep his arms up while another was an inner-tube in the shape of a duck. Braig had not wished to kill his prodigy no matter how many times the boy had splashed oatmeal in his face the morning before. He was sure that within a short time Myde would at least like the water a little, but he didn't entertain the notion that the boy would scream and fuss when he was taken OUT of it. That was a surprise and a half…but he had achieved his goal in the end and his babe was in love with the water. Now, if only he could have allowed the boy to indulge in gunfire at two years old…but all the guidebooks screamed that was a parenting "NO" in large letters. Oh well, he'd wait until the boy was at least twelve to teach him how to shoot a gun!


	3. Chapter 3: Little Minnow, Big Pond

( I know that the ages are a little misunderstood between Ienzo, Isa and Lea with the fact that Myde would be younger than Lea but for the purpose of this story, I altered a few things. Please forgive me. :D )

Chapter Three: Little Minnow, Big Pond

It had been some years since his little minnow had been found among the waves and it almost seemed a distant memory now-a-days. The worst of it seemed almost a nightmare, the temper tantrums, the late night refusals to go to his bed, and even the disobedience was enough to drive him to the brink of insanity. Still Myde always seemed to worm his way into his heart, and it was likely a case of the boy truly being the fisherman. The child was now almost seven years of age and every second he was whizzing about with a bout of new energy. From climbing to the crows-nest to running about his ship's deck, the boy was an unexplained ball of energy and mayhem. It was becoming difficult almost to keep the boy from launching himself off the deck and into the water just so that he might be free of the ship's isolating walls. The boy was absolutely convinced that he needed to be out and about, but Braig still wanted to keep Myde a secret from most everyone.

"When can we go see other people, brother?"

"Not today."

After the fifteenth time repeating the same answer in a week, Braig was beginning to feel strung out. Not only was he feeling strung out but so was his little charge that was huffing and stomping up a storm on the deck most days. The two of them were butting heads and the begging just never seemed to end. Braig was ready to rip out the gray hairs on his head own head and then string the little boy up by his toes and give him a few dunks in the ocean just to calm his nerves. It was at breakfast, when both were indulging in toast and eggs…though different styles, Myde liked scrambled eggs with so much cheese that there little was virtually no egg and Braig preferred sunny side up, when the boy practically had a tantrum about the outside world.

"Why can't I go out there? I'll be good, I just want to go out and play! Please, pretty pretty please, please Braaaig, I'll be good! I won't do nothin' wrong!"

The situation truly could have gone two ways from there, him continuing his insistence of 'no' and getting the boy's eggs in his face, or allowing the runt to see other kids. It wouldn't be such a bad experience, right, and at least he'd be free of the mounting migraine that seemed to have consumed his mind.

"Fine, fine; sheesh; you never stop begging, do you Minnow?"

"Nope," Grinned the little mullet clad rat as he grinned into his scrambled eggs, his feet dangling and moving back and forth with excitement. It was obvious the boy was just barely containing his happiness because he was practically bouncing in his seat and it was just enough to almost make Braig groan into his coffee and bury himself in the news paper's headlines.

"So when we leavin'?"

Groan.

KHKHKH( Break in time)KHKH

It was half past seven am when Myde dove onto his bed, bouncing up and down with exclamations of 'wake up, wake up!', and it was enough for Braig to bat the child off with a large pillow. The option seemed highly tempting until the little imp aimed "you promised, Braig!" and a tug at his blanketed form. The deep lines of his scowl were reminiscent of Dilan without a single lick of coffee, and it was enough to set him for the grumpiest of mornings.

"Fine, fine, I get it. It's yer birthday and as the birthday scamp you wanna romp around outside the ship but can't we do this during at least ten in the morning?"

"Nope! I'm the birthday boy and I get to decide. You said so~"

"I didn't say the hour we do it at, you little con-artist."

"Well, you're up now! Guess we can skip breakfast and just gooo~"

"Oh I don't think so."

Groan. Seven year olds were far worse than two year olds any day of the week, because seven year olds had their own agendas and that meant if the little rats found a way around a situation, it was a losing battle for the adults. It didn't take long before Myde had dragged the slumped form of his caretaker in a sitting position, and soon enough Braig was on his feet. In a sad posture, he slunk his way to the table within the cabin and set himself to a cup of coffee. Myde had bounced his way to the cabinet and grabbed a plastic bowl and two handedly grasped at the full jug of milk. Myde's favorite cereal, Cap'n Crunch, sat in the bowl as the boy seemed to stick his tongue out and attempt to slosh the milk in the bowl of his own accord until Braig snatched the jug from him.

"Hey-Hey, Easy Birthday boy, just because you're seven doesn't mean I need milk all over the table," he smirked as he ran his fingers through the boy's gravity defying locks.

"I wouldn't have! I could do it, Braig, honest!" the boy said as he climbed onto the wooden chair, his knees seeming to take a spot where his rump was suppose to. The boy's fingers grasping at the spoon with a bubbly excitement. "Hurry, hurry! I want to go soon~" It wasn't long before the bowl was placed in front of the child and he was savagely at his cereal, talking in between mouthfuls which didn't bother Braig too much.

"mfhats it mmfike out mmhere?"

"In English and slower this time please, Minnow." Braig murmured as he sipped at his coffee and nursed his morning headache.

"What's it like out there, Braig?"

"I thought I answered this a thousand times before, boy, but you'll see soon enough. Just keep eating your breakfast and don't end up wearing it."

KHKH( Break in Time) KH KH

The rest of the morning flew by as fast as the little minnow willed it to go, and Braig went as painfully slow as possible just to mess with the pup. It was his intent to teach Myde a bit of patience but all it served was to get the boy pushing at his heels. The child wore light blue tennis shoes, a pair of black trousers and a blue t-shirt with a surfer framed on the front and a wave on the back. His Minnow was rather obsessed with the color blue and did favor green every once and awhile but he was deeply fascinated with blue to the point of it being a fashion statement.

"I don't like the color red, brother, it's too angry. And yellow, yellow seems kinda like a scaredy cat color! I like blue! It's like the ocean! Do you think other kids like blue as much as me?"

The number of times that conversation seemed to wind its way through their daily lives was overwhelming but the boy was rather isolated aboard the Oblivion and though secrecy seemed important in the past, now it just seemed to make the boy suffer and it had been in his personal experience that if the child suffered, he eventually suffered too. It was also becoming obvious that his imp would enjoy school, though he could not understand why…but it did seem to save him a headache in teaching Myde too many things_. _

_That's the fun part about teachers,_ he mused, _they get to suffer through the stuff that caregivers don't want to._

It was sure enough that by the time both of them had made it into Radiant Gardens that the town was in full swing and the citizens were taking to its care. One gentleman seemed to have a slash across his face and was busy organizing a team of individuals to begin in the organizing of the gardens and the flower arrangements.

"C'mon, quit slacking men!"

"Hey!"

"Alright, alright, women too…feel better Yuffie?"

"Yes I do!" and from there a short haired female took off with her tongue stuck out and her feet dashing past as a group of boys chased after her.

Braig watched the scene with a bored expression but Myde soaked up any kind of notion of social interaction. From the way that the sun hit the buildings, to the way the towns people dressed, Myde was stunned…Braig figured it was probably because it was his first time around anyone but himself. Braig found it all rather boring on the whole, but he liked his privacy and the Oblivion offered that and more.

"Having fun then, Minnow?"

"Yeah! Can we go in the shops? You still have to get me a birthday present!"

"What! I thought this was your birthday present?"

"Nope, you still have to get me something!"

"Oh I do, do I?"He smirked as he grabbed the small boy and hoisted him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. The boys gave protest but did not much else but wiggle about like a fish out of water.

"Let me down, let me down…Braig!"

"Say the magic words, kiddo."

"Do I haaave to?" It seemed that their little exchange was not on mute ears though, for a boy that seemed roughly Myde's age, stood against the wall clashing brilliantly with it. His hair seemed to defy as much gravity as Myde's but lacked the simple up to the sky method and seemed to spike in every direction so long as it defied logic. The fact that the walls were but light terracotta and the boy's hair was fire engine red made it virtually impossible to miss the child, though Braig swore he had not seen this boy before. There were orphans among Radiant Garden, each hiding out in the towns or settled in the orphanage until the day there were given a home. Ienzo had been one of those special cases where his parents had died, but this boy? It was hard to tell, he looked like he was a bit of a scrapper to Braig. The boy's eyes were as green as an emerald plucked straight from the ground but he didn't seem alone. There was a clashing blue set to defy gravity itself and had a pair of sage green eyes and wore the deepest of dark blues to clash against his partner in crime with his orange garb and cargo pants. The little boy with fire engine hair seemed to have his gaze set on Braig and Myde, an envious glare so it seemed.

"Yes, you have to. C'mon, say it, Minnow!"

"Minnows belong in fish bowls," the little mullet clad twerp pouted, his whole expression sinking in a sulk. That was only for a few minutes before his fingers tickled at the child's underarms and exposed a squeal of laughter.

"Now make the fish face, Myde!"

"I don't wanna, it's my birthday~" the boy sulked and giggled but he soon sucked in air and puffed up his cheeks until he resembled something of a puffer-fish, when Braig smirked, a devilish expression on his face of amusement, he let the little twerp down. The result was immediate that Myde saw his audience and practically dove on the two boys if only to see for the first time what other children were like.

"Hi, I'm Myde! I live on a biiiig ship, it's huge and that's Braig. He's my big brother, and he's taking me to town for the first time~ Do you live here? I bet its lots of fun!"

Braig knew from experience that at times it was obvious that Myde required no sugar to get through his day, but rather at times, he longed for a tranquilizer. The boy was simply a ball of energy and it was obvious that the blue haired boy seemed affronted at the amount of audacity that Myde seemed to wield. It was obvious now that the blue haired child had to be at least nine or ten, while the red seemed to be about eight or nine in appearance alone and actions. Braig wasn't one for watching children usually, but Myde had grown on him…though he scarcely would ever admit such a thing. The boy seemed positively glowing to be speaking to someone other than Braig for the first time.

"We live here. It's not that much fun, too many flowers bein' planted and all that stuff. I'm just waiting to work at the castle," the blue haired boy answered, his eyes set to the sky. "All the really cool grownups seem to work up there, and I want to be like them."

"Yeah, well, I'll be there before you Isa, I promise!"The red haired boy seemed to glow just the way his Myde did, but there was more of a worldly feel of that child. He had scuff marks on his sneakers, and scratches on his elbows and knees, the boy was a fireball compared to the second which seemed as still and calm as the eye of a storm. For children, Braig could see more of an adult in the 'Isa' boy than the second; possibly because this ginger child was about as spritely as his own little bundle of trouble.

"Do you go to school? We do and that's not much fun at all either. I bet it would be LOADS more fun on a ship!"

"What is School?"

"What do you mean what's school?"

"Lea, he probably doesn't gotta go to school if he lives on a ship, he probably doesn't know a lot about town stuff like schools, and shops and ice cream. School is where you go when adults try to make you learn stuff like math, science, social studies, y'know that kind of stuff."

"Yeah, boring stuff, you got lucky not going to school, and I mean it. I'd trade shoes with you any day, even if mine are cooler!"

Sure enough, it seemed that Braig watched the whole exchange before him. It was obvious now that the child with red hair was Lea and the one with blue was Isa, but both seemed completely unaware that Myde was growing in fascination, and the boy that those two twerps filled in his head, the more Braig would hear about having to live in town or going to school, or 'what's ice cream?'. If he thought Myde was a headache now, wait until kids his own age got a hold of him.

"I don't know what ice cream is, but I don't go to school and I didn't even know what it was. Today was my birthday so I wanted to see what it's like in a town and I like it a lot so far!"

"I would too if I didn't have to go to schoo—"It was at that point where the mouthy red head, Lea, was elbowed in the side by his slightly taller companion.

"Don't mind him; he's the biggest dummy of the whole school."

The redhead's companion, Isa, seemed to be the more level-headed of the two boys, and of them, Braig seemed to find difficulty deciding which one he favored more. The red head, Lea, had a personality, and if anything spark, and Braig always did favor a person with personality; after all no one liked talking to a wall, least of all Aeleus, for the man was just that…a brick wall. If anything, Braig enjoyed shooting dart guns at the man, if only to see if he might get a reaction at least once, but it was rather fruitless efforts on his part. The blue haired child, Isa, was something of an intelligent kid from the looks of it, the type that he would normally be caught cheating off of when he went to school. Sure, there were reasons that he thought Myde would enjoy being free of homework, and oppressive lessons, but the kid kept wanting to be among his peers. It was hard to get that decision truly firm in his mind, because the boy seemed to want friends badly, and if there was one thing that came from raising his Minnow, it was that he couldn't say no to the boy at times. Even Braig had his own cohorts of sort, Xehanort was his pal, his buddy, and so was Dilan, and he favored messing up all of Even's experiments…it was all in good fun. He was beginning to ponder if it was Myde's time to gain a small group of his own. Still, the child had all the time he needed to decide if he wanted to go to school, and Braig would teach him all he needed to in how to be a slacker.

"C'mon, Myde, let's get yer birthday present and head home," he murmured, moving his hand in the air as he spoke, strong fervent motions emphasizing every single word.

"So your names Myde, well I'm Lea and that's Isa. And you don't know it yet, but you've just made two new friends! You'll have to come back now, right?" The boy was a cherub of sorts, a year or two older than his but still; the interaction could almost be seen as cute, if Braig thought anything of that sort of stuff. However, he was a tough member of Radiant Garden, not a wet nurse, so he didn't find anything cute. Not in the slightest.

"Right, friends~!"Myde responded, his eyes all a-glow. The bottle-glass green of his charge's eyes were shimmering like nothing he had managed to see before. The biggest of grins was forming and despite all past birthdays, this was the largest the boy's smile had ever been.


End file.
